Bohemian Football Club Crest

Bohemians earned passage to the Setanta Sports Cup final as they left Windsor Park victorious after absorbing a blizzard of Linfield attacks in the second half.

St Patrick’s Athletic will be their opponents in the showpiece. This result was a huge boost to the Gypsies after recent poor results and will certainly lift confidence. The Bohemians manager, Pat Fenlon, had pointed to defence as an area of concern so a clean sheet and a solid display were a welcome relief. Linfield, however, will be kicking themselves with some of the chances they passed up.

Bohemians started brilliantly here, taking the lead in the 5th minute. Paul Keegan knocked forward to Paddy Madden through the centre, who expertly stayed onside, out-speeding skipper William Murphy, before sliding calmly beyond Alan Blayney’s dive.

Linfield were all over the place early on, looking vulnerable every time Bohemians pushed forward. Killian Brennan capitalised on their hesitancy with a smashing cross-field ball to Jason Byrne. But Byrne wastefully headed straight at Blayney before the goalkeeper tipped away another headed effort by Raffaele Cretaro moments after.

The game was being played at a quick tempo as Madden showed excellent vision when picking out Cretaro with the outside of his boot on 32 minutes. Cretaro had oceans of room, but instead of shooting, he attempted to play in the over-lapping Brian Shelley and the chance was lost. The visitors had much the better of the play in that opening half and would have been disappointed not to put the game out of Linfield’s reach.

With Linfield needing two goals, the Dublin side knew a wave of attacks were on the way in the second period. The Blues went desperately close to equalising five minutes into the re-start when Michael Gault’s header from a corner was destined for the top corner until Madden intervened with a header of his own. As useful at both ends and a key moment in this tie.

Murphy then re-adjusted his body superbly to claim a shot that had taken a wicked deflection off a Bohemians defender.

The striker, Paul Munster, who has enjoyed a hot streak in front of goal recently, should have scored after a fine move, but flashed his close range effort wide.

The Bohemians manager, Pat Fenlon, was frantically urging his players to push out, as they were sitting too deep and encouraging their opponents to attack. William Murphy had a glorious opportunity to get his side back in the tie when a long throw bounced to him on the edge of the area. It was a trademark centre-half’s strike, a huge slice off the boot that skidded five yards past the post. That was as close as they got as Bohemians made the long trip home in better spirits.

Linfield: Blayney; 12 B Burns, 2 Douglas, 5 W Murphy, 14 A Burns (Allen, 68); 10 Carvill (Lowry, 64), Garrett, Gault, Curran; Thompson (C), Munster

Bohemians: Murphy; Shelley, Oman, McGuinness, Rossiter (Powell, 79); Cretaro (A Murphy, 64), Keegan (C), Cronin, Brennan; Madden, Byrne (Quigley, 71)

Possession: Linfield: 56% Bohs: 44%

Attempts on target: Linfield: 5 Bohs: 4

Attempts off target: Linfield: 5 Bohs:1

Corners: Linfield: 6 Bohs: 3

Bookings: Linfield: Stephen Douglas, Peter Thompson

Bohs: Paddy Madden

Sent off: Linfield: None Bohs: None

Referee: David Malcolm